Our Story

Your time is precious and your comfort is paramount.
We create designs that look good and feel amazing, so you can
forget the small stuff and get on with the big stuff.

Shannon and JJ Wilson

A Wilson family company.

Shannon is married to JJ’s father, Chip Wilson, the founder of lululemon. During their time spent travelling abroad and living internationally, JJ and Shannon recognized a void in the luxury apparel industry. After spending years dressed head to toe in stretchy performance wear, they were looking for clothing that offered the same functionality but that met their desire for sophistication, style and luxury. Since they couldn’t find what they were looking for, they created it.

Shannon’s institutional knowledge and experience in product design teamed with JJ’s insights into fashion and retail have culminated into the vision that is Kit and Ace. Their plan is to deliver innovative products that provide comfort and ease of use to the wearer, while still offering the style and quality of the luxury brands they love.

Technical Innovation

Improving the perfect.

Kit and Ace is future-focused and in constant pursuit of the newest systems, fabrics, tools, construction and care to constantly improve our products. We intend to disrupt the market by showing people what is possible.

We design products that benefit you in ways that are seamless, luxurious and save you time. Technical Cashmere™ – a machine washable fabric engineered from cashmere and technical fibres, with added stretch – is the first of many proprietary Technical Luxury™ fabrics we will create. In the future we are looking towards styles and fabric designs that are easier to use, more comfortable, more hygienic, offer better protection, versatility and style.

By elevating luxury fabrics with the application of technical and functional attributes and incorporating ease of care, comfort and functionality at levels beyond what is currently available, we are improving what was already thought to be perfect.

The Creative Class

Making an impact on your surroundings through creativity.

You have important things to do. You are innovative, future-focused, problem seeking and problem solving. Creativity is your cornerstone and a hallmark of the Creative Class.

We design for people like you. You are making an impact and are driven by the effect your creative endeavours can have on your environment and those around you…but you are busy. So you need clothing that looks and feels just as good as it wears and that is easy to take care of.

At Kit and Ace, we believe in mutually beneficial relationships. We celebrate what others are contributing to the world and we recognize how their work influences us. The Creative Class is not elitist. We aspire to beauty and we celebrate progress.

Start Small, Go Big

Tailoring experiences to support local communities.

Each of our Kit and Ace shops is uniquely local in its design and each shop experience is tailored to its environment. Across all stores you will find gallery inspired spaces that feature the work of local artists, photography that is iconic to each city, as well as custom light fixtures and furniture. We also partner with local vendors for all in-store events, whether that is the brewery around the corner or a restaurant offering the best in local fare. We celebrate creativity and design in each city that we call home. We recognize the local influence and honour it in each of our shop locations.

The Origins of Technical Cashmere™

Follow our cashmere from Mongolia to your closet.

Our products are as much about the production process as they are about style and design. Every step and every partner is carefully considered. We work with amazing people, processes and production methods, so we can guarantee the quality and craftsmanship of Technical Cashmere™.

Take a step-by-step tour of how our cashmere travels from Mongolia to your closet.

Our cashmere is sourced from happy goats living in both Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China.

To collect cashmere, the goats are combed once a year in April when they are losing their winter hair. Their hair falls out easily in the spring and a wide-tooth wired comb is used to ensure only the cashmere hair is removed, not their regular hair. (We want the goats to be lighter for the summer months, not naked.)

FACT:
Each goat provides approximately two ounces of cashmere, enough to make about half of a sweater – so you can thank at least two goats for giving up their winter coat to keep you warm. (Thank you notes are not included with purchase.)

After the hair is collected from the combs, it is colour sorted, cleaned and then drawn out into raw cashmere. This is where things start to get technical.

The cashmere is now ready to be blended into a yarn with other fibres we specifically source globally including cotton, elastane and nylon. Each of our cashmere yarns is of a different composition determined by the technical function of the piece it will be knit or woven into.

When the precise composition of the yarn is determined, the cashmere is sent to be spun, knit or woven, dyed and finished to create one of the proprietary fabrics of Kit and Ace. Then it’s time for the details.

Our design teams collaborate with our partner factories to engineer each garment and refine its technical details. The materials are then cut and sewn into prototype garments for review and testing. Upon size, fit and quality approval our factory partners then produce full orders. The softest most comfortable fabric is on its way to our shops.

Our Technical Cashmere™ gets into your hands. After production, t-shirts and apparel are then distributed to our shops across Canada and the United States (soon to be global) and delivered directly to your front door from our studio dot com.